The PDP campaign council also accused Obasanjo of working with the APC because President Goodluck Jonathan refused to be tele-guided by him, stressing that the former president intends to pull down the nation’s democracy rather than allow Jonathan return to power.
Obasanjo, who has since become one of the foremost critics of Jonathan, said:
“President Jonathan has a grand plan to ensure that he wins the election by hook or crook and if he loses, he scuttles it and brings chaos and confusion in the whole country.”
He further accused Jonathan of trying to follow in the steps of Laurent Gbagbo, the former president of Cote d’Ivoire, who postponed election in his country until he was sure he could win.
But while speaking at a press conference, director of media and publicity of Jonathan campaign, Femi Fani-Kayode, who described Obasanjo’s allegations as reckless, said the former president does not have any genuine interest for democracy but intends to stop Jonathan at all costs.
Fani-Kayode further said it was up to the leadership of PDP to sanction Jonathan for anti-party activities, noting that the party holds him in high esteem as former president under its platform for 8 years.
He said, “President Olusegun Obasanjo’s allegations are serious. They are also reckless. He has raised issues and made assertions that are capable of derailing our democracy and creating chaos in the land. It is vital that we consider his motives for this latest outburst and his credentials as a leader and an elder statesman.
“The truth is that he knows that President Goodluck Jonathan will win next month’s presidential election and that is why he wants to destroy the credibility of the whole process right from the outset. What he is trying to say in his latest contribution is that if President Jonathan wins, then the election must have been rigged right from the outset. This is not only wrong but it is also unfair and uncharitable. If former President Obasanjo has any evidence to prove his weighty allegations, he ought to present it before the Council of State and take it up there."
“He should also report to INEC itself and present the data of whatever sinister plan he believes that President Jonathan has to stay in power by hook or by crook to them. He should tell INEC whatever it is that Jonathan is doing in order for him to stay in power by all means and he should give them all the details. That should be the starting point.
“The record shows that this is not the first time that INEC has postponed elections. In 2011 during the National Assembly elections, INEC not only cancelled the elections just after they started but they also postponed them by two weeks. The heavens did not fall then and neither did President Obasanjo accuse INEC or the president of having any grand plan to stay in power by hook or by crook at that time. One wonders what has suddenly changed?
“What INEC has done by postponing the elections is firmly within the confines of the law and they have probably saved thousands of lives by doing so. They have also given the 34 per cent of Nigerians that had not collected their PVCs as at the relevant time the opportunity to do so.”
“Without this postponement, all those people would have been disenfranchised and it would have placed a dark cloud over the whole process. Why should President Obasanjo have a problem with that?"
He further accused Jonathan of trying to follow in the steps of Laurent Gbagbo, the former president of Cote d’Ivoire, who postponed election in his country until he was sure he could win.
But while speaking at a press conference, director of media and publicity of Jonathan campaign, Femi Fani-Kayode, who described Obasanjo’s allegations as reckless, said the former president does not have any genuine interest for democracy but intends to stop Jonathan at all costs.
Fani-Kayode further said it was up to the leadership of PDP to sanction Jonathan for anti-party activities, noting that the party holds him in high esteem as former president under its platform for 8 years.
He said, “President Olusegun Obasanjo’s allegations are serious. They are also reckless. He has raised issues and made assertions that are capable of derailing our democracy and creating chaos in the land. It is vital that we consider his motives for this latest outburst and his credentials as a leader and an elder statesman.
“The truth is that he knows that President Goodluck Jonathan will win next month’s presidential election and that is why he wants to destroy the credibility of the whole process right from the outset. What he is trying to say in his latest contribution is that if President Jonathan wins, then the election must have been rigged right from the outset. This is not only wrong but it is also unfair and uncharitable. If former President Obasanjo has any evidence to prove his weighty allegations, he ought to present it before the Council of State and take it up there."
“He should also report to INEC itself and present the data of whatever sinister plan he believes that President Jonathan has to stay in power by hook or by crook to them. He should tell INEC whatever it is that Jonathan is doing in order for him to stay in power by all means and he should give them all the details. That should be the starting point.
“The record shows that this is not the first time that INEC has postponed elections. In 2011 during the National Assembly elections, INEC not only cancelled the elections just after they started but they also postponed them by two weeks. The heavens did not fall then and neither did President Obasanjo accuse INEC or the president of having any grand plan to stay in power by hook or by crook at that time. One wonders what has suddenly changed?
“What INEC has done by postponing the elections is firmly within the confines of the law and they have probably saved thousands of lives by doing so. They have also given the 34 per cent of Nigerians that had not collected their PVCs as at the relevant time the opportunity to do so.”
“Without this postponement, all those people would have been disenfranchised and it would have placed a dark cloud over the whole process. Why should President Obasanjo have a problem with that?"
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